ref: 948870cffe2572efb68ef0b3873b36238fb53263
dir: /man/2/ida/
.TH IDA 2
.SH NAME
Ida: Frag, fragment, consistent, reconstruct \- information dispersal algorithm
.SH SYNOPSIS
.EX
include "ida.m";
ida := load Ida Ida->PATH;
Frag: adt {
dlen: int; # length of original data
m: int; # minimum pieces for reconstruction
a: array of int; # encoding array row for this fragment
enc: array of int; # encoded data
tag: array of byte; # user data, such as SHA1 hash
pack: fn(f: self ref Frag): array of byte;
unpack: fn(d: array of byte): ref Frag;
};
init: fn();
fragment: fn(data: array of byte, m: int): ref Frag;
consistent: fn(frags: array of ref Frag): array of ref Frag;
reconstruct: fn(frags: array of ref Frag): (array of byte, string);
.EE
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B Ida
implements Rabin's Information Dispersal Algorithm (IDA), an effective scheme
for fault-tolerant storage and message routing.
The algorithm breaks an array of bytes (for instance a file or a block of data) into
.I n
pieces,
in such a way that the original data can be recovered using only
.I m
of them, where
.I n
and
.I m
are parameters.
The module provides the fundamental operations.
.PP
.B Init
must be called before invoking any other operation of the module.
.PP
.B Fragment
takes an array of
.IR data ,
and
.IR m ,
the minimum number of pieces required for reconstruction,
and returns a reference to a
.B Frag
value representing one encoded fragment of the data.
At least
.I m
calls must be made to
.B fragment
to obtain enough such fragments to be able to rebuild the data;
invariably more fragments are generated to provide the desired level of redundancy.
.PP
Each fragment
.B Frag
has the following components:
.TP
.B dlen
The length in bytes of the
.IR data .
.TP
.B m
The minimum number of fragments for reconstruction.
.TP
.B a
The row of an \fIm\fP×\fIm\fP encoding matrix that corresponds to this fragment.
.TP
.B enc
The encoded data, represented by an array of integer values.
For
.I L
bytes of input data, the array will have length
.\\"$ left ceil L over 2m right ceil $.
.rm 11
.ds 12 "\f2L\fP
.ds 13 "\f12\fP\f2\^m\fP
.nr 12 0\w'\s+0\*(12'
.nr 13 0\w'\s+0\*(13'
.nr 14 \n(12
.if \n(13>\n(14 .nr 14 \n(13
.nr 14 \n(14+0.5m
.ds 12 \v'0.7m'\h'\n(14u-\n(13u/2u'\*(13\v'-0.7m'\
\h'-\n(13u-\n(12u/2u'\v'-0.6m'\*(12\v'0.6m'\
\h'-\n(14u-\n(12u/2u+0.1m'\v'-0.3m'\l'\n(14u-0.2m'\h'0.1m'\v'0.3m'
.ds 12 \^\v'0.13m'\b'\(lc\(bv\(bv'\v'-0.13m'\*(12\v'0.13m'\b'\(rc\(bv\(bv'\v'-0.13m'
.ds 12 \x'0-0.85m'\*(12\x'1.05m'
.as 11 \*(12
.lf 4
.as 11 ".
\*(11
.lf 5
.PP
All those values must be stored or transmitted for later use, to reconstruct the data.
The values in
.B a
are in the interval
.RI "[ 1,\ 65536 ]"
and those in
.B enc
are in the interval
.RI "[ 0,\ 65536 ]."
.PP
.B Reconstruct
takes an array
.I frags
of distinct fragments previously produced by repeated calls to
.BI fragment( data,\ m )
and returns a tuple
.BI ( data,\ err ) .
Provided at least
.I m
suitable fragments are found in
.IR frags ,
the
.I data
returned will be that originally provided to
.BR fragment .
If the parameters of the various fragments in
.I frags
disagree, or some other error occurs,
.I data
will be nil and
.I err
will contain a diagnostic.
.B Reconstruct
assumes the fragments it receives are consistent:
they represent the same encoding parameters, including the value of
.IR m .
If it detects an inconsistency, it returns a diagnostic.
.PP
.B Consistent
checks the consistency of a set of fragments, and returns a new subset containing
only those fragments that agree with the majority in
.I frags
on each parameter.
.SH SOURCE
.B /appl/lib/ida/ida.b
.br
.B /appl/lib/ida/idatab.b
.SH SEE ALSO
M Rabin, ``Efficient Dispersal of Information for Security, Load Balancing, and Fault Tolerance'',
.I JACM
.BR 36(2) ,
April 1989,
pp. 335-348.